The shrine

In the main shrine hall of Penang’s Dharmikaramma Burmese Buddhist Temple stands an 27 ft (8.2 m) tall statue of Buddha. It’s not the most impressive such statue I’ve ever seen, and across the road there is a more popular sleeping Buddha statue, but nonetheless this statue was impressive in its own right.

Behind the main statue stand a further sixteen 8 ft (2.4 m) standing Buddha statues as well as hundreds of smaller white figures that adorn the walls of this relatively small shrine.

It always strikes me as paradoxical that religion can inspire the creation of such beauty, while at the same time be held as justification for such ugliness.